Wednesday, April 22, 2009
By: MrDisgusting
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Actor-turned-writer Jonathan Schaech is having a good week. First, after more than five years of struggle to get his first project with writing partner Richard Chizmar released, The Poker Club, the movie is finally hitting DVD this week. For a little icing on the cake, Rob Hall’s Laid to Rest also releases on disc this week, in which Schaech makes a cameo. Schaech previously worked with Hall on Prom Night and Quarantine..
Bloody-Disgusting spoke to Schaech this week about his work on POKER CLUB, LAID TO REST as well as his highly-anticipated adaptation of Stephen King’s FROM A BUICK 8 (which you can read about here).
Schaech is pleased to finally bring POKER CLUB to an audience, but he admits it was more of a struggle than he expected. “It's the the first film that me and my writing partner, Richard Chizmar, adapted about five to six years ago,” says Schaech. “It's an Ed Gorman novel. We thought we’d found the perfect book to make into a film. And then it had so many life’s and so many deaths and finally, I met [director] Tim McCann and we changed a couple things around, we got private financing and got the film made.”
POKER CLUB is by no means a poker movie, but the elements of the game and the skills possessed by poker players come into play as the story progresses. “It's about four guys that play poker every week,” Schaech tells BD. “A burglar breaks into the house while they’re playing poker and they accidentally kill him. Then they make a decision that they’re going to get rid of the body because they see the ramifications. They could be held liable and do jail time for what they did. Its not really about poker. Its more of the undercurrents of poker, the things that are going on at the table that you’re not talking about, trying to get rid of your fellow comrade next to you.”
A poker player himself, Schaech said it was fun to play with the game in the context of a horror movie. “I love poker. I wouldn’t say I’m very good at it. Not too good, but not too shabby.” Like in the game, the characters start to play against one another, but for higher stakes. “They’re covering up [the murder] and showing their poker faces when they’re interviewed and stuff like that. But it really has to do with the underlying deceit and deception that poker really is. Its really a blood sport because you just want to kill the other person involved.”
Also hitting DVD this week is Rob Hall’s directorial debut, LAID TO REST. Schaech is a friend of Hall’s, so he made a brief but fun cameo in the flick. Schaech was more-than-happy to discuss the details of his part, but be warned the dialogue ahead contains spoilers:
“I basically make a cameo,” says Schaech. “I come in and out for one scene. It’s a great scene, though, one of the best kills I’ve ever seen before in horror films. I get killed very quickly. You gotta see the clips. A knife goes through my jaw and I have a knife full of blade.”
Schaech says horror has been very good to him so far and he plans to keep working in the genre for as long as it will have him. His writing partner, Richard Chizmar, is an editor of independent horror for Cemetary Dance. The two grew up together and Schaech eventually caught the bug from his friend. “The people in horror are really cool. As I’ve gotten more into the genre, I’ve really appreciated the fans. They have a set audience, they have an understanding with the genre and they know where it’s going. They want more out of it. They use the history and cherish their elders. Its like a tribe. You don’t see that in film.”
Schaech gets sliced in Laid to Rest
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That video clip makes me happy inside. |
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